There I was, gently digesting and deliberating after a hearty meal, when a young nephew comes up and asks me a question. Now he is a studious lad, takes an interest in the world around him and asks questions of adults when he doesn’t understand what is happening. “Can you explain to me” he says, with an angelic smile which disguises the demon lurking inside, “why governments have spent so much money to save the banks, but don’t want to spend the same amount to save the planet?”.

Wow! This boy has a future attending shareholder meetings and asking those awkward questions! Why indeed I pondered, considered the rather lacklustre performance in Copenhagen, compared to the enthusiastic approach to throwing taxpayers money into the financial system. I started to gently explain how important the financial system was to the effective operation of the world economy when I immediately realised that I was going to get caught in a temporal infinite loop worthy of a Doctor Who script – if we don’t save the banks we won’t get to save the planet, but if we don’t save the planet, do the banks even matter? Clearly I was going to have to come up with some killer analysis, and fast. I admit that I failed. At any rate I failed to come up with a simple enough answer to satisfy the innocent (or maybe not so innocent!) inquiry of a pre-teen citizen of the world. Fortunately, the more immediate demands of chocolate and other arriving relatives distracted him from my indecision.

It is a simple question, and attempts to deliver a simple answer appear only to highlight the short sightedness of our elected leaders. I would love to have an answer to satisfy such innocent simple curiosity.

Answers on a postcard please!

I picked up his new book “Being Virtual – who you really are online” without too many expectations and was totally impressed. This is the first book about virtual environments and online communities (and there have been plenty) that addresses the issues from the point of view of what these environments mean to people. If you struggle to understand why digital natives, your gen Y employees or even your kids do what they do, go read Davey’s book!

Hence it was interesting to follow the discussions at that other global get-together of the leading thinkers (no, NOT Davos – I’m talking about TED). This remains one of the most inspiring forums around, with it’s broad range of subject matter and diverse approaches, to say nothing of some of the best presentations you will ever see. The structure of “Reboot, Reframe, Reconnect” for the opening day struck a chord with me (hence the title of this entry). Just like a software program which has hung maybe we cannot simply expect things to sort themselves out without radical action.

Maybe it is time to reboot in the real world as well – however painful that may be.

What is different is the weather – heavy snow at home and I’m basking in summer and eating in the open air – sometimes being an analyst isn’t all bad!

According to government figures reported this morning by the BBC the UK is in a recession. Well knock me down with a feather, I would never have guessed! Half the high street has gone bust, there are close on 2 million unemployed, the stock market is on the floor and it just keeps getting worse. Since the fact that we were in a recession was blindingly obvious to everyone in the country (apart from the government it would seem) they must be occupying a parallel universe where a different reality exists.

(And yes, I realise the technical definition of a recession require two consecutive quarters of negative growth, but it is government pronoucements like this one that convince an already cynical population of their lack of grasp on reality!)

The second example I will offer took place at an unearthly hour yesterday morning. I am not a morning person so whilst my wife was charging around getting ready for work she was listening to one of the morning TV programs. Through the fog of a brain still lacking sufficient caffeine to kick start the neural synapses I heard some studio “expert” talking about the dangers of uncontrolled access to the internet by children and informing us that “some teenagers are spending as much as two hours a week on Facebook”. TWO HOURS A WEEK?! This guy clearly didn’t have teenage children. How about four or more hours a DAY! In fact it is probably longer, since they use it as a backdrop to everything else, switching effortlessly from homework to IM to updating their status and checking on the latest photos from their friends. All I can imagine is that this gentleman was discussing the behaviour of children in the same parallel universe that the UK government is occupying, because it doesn’t look or feel much like the one I am in!!!

Sorry!  But then again, he and Chief Justice John Roberts did fluff the lines for the oath of office causing them to retake the oath later in the day out of “an abundance of caution”. No pressure of course, only a billion or so people listening!

Anyway, on to more trivial matters (!). I am becoming increasingly impressed and delighted by the diversity of applications which are turning up for my iPod Touch (and the iPhone as well of course), as well as the ease with which you download and install them.  Whilst browsing App Store last night I came across this gem from iHandySoft Inc. It turns your iTouch/Phone into a spirit level and is a beautiful combination of retro looks (it actually looks like a bubble in a nice wooden mount) and the modern – it provides a digital readout. It also appears to be pretty accurate, and best of all it is FREE. I think it is this type of application that exemplifies all that is best about this growing ecosystem – Apple claim to have served more than 500 million applications to date.

So, what other gems have you found in App Store – especially the free ones! Please share (and I promise to excuse the typos if you post from your mobile device!!)

Now I’m off to rehang those pictures, and this time I will get them straight!!!

The level of expectation of President (elect) Obama’s shoulders in unbelieveable, seemingly across the globe, that one can only wonder how one man could ever meet even a fraction of it.  Political events tend to leave me reaching towards dead politicians from the past.  I am reminded on Winston Churchill’s great “Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few” or in this case perhaps to just one man. I wish him luck, because he is going to need it!

Much of the expectation is as a result of technology today. One of my colleagues Alan Weiner is readying a full array of technology to monitor multiple feeds and have the full “experience”. The days of reading about things days (or even weeks later in the case of “Mafeking Relieved!”) are long gone, although I’m sure it will dominate the printed media for days to come. Mind you, in an eerie echo of less pleasant events of the past, another colleague revealed that she was aware of a “major data security breach” that was due to be revealed today! As one eponymous civil servant in the UK famously remarked (not expecting to be heard on that previous occasion) “Today will be a good day to bury bad news!”. We will be watching – you have been warned!

But maybe I’m just getting too old! The late science fiction author Douglas Adams (who is a ricj source of dry witticisms regarding technology) commented on technology thus - ”Anything that is in the world when you’re born is normal and ordinary and is just a natural part of the way the world works. Anything that’s invented between when you’re fifteen and thirty-five is new and exciting and revolutionary and you can probably get a career in it. Anything invented after you’re thirty-five is clearly the work of the devil and the end of life as we know it” (or something pretty close to that!).

Since I’m over 35 I am clearly behaving according to type, so at least I can be comfortable with that. In fact, since I’ve now passed the half century I am, as my family happily remind me, a fully paid up “grunpy old git”! Bah Humbug is all I can say to that!!!

So, since I strive to maintain an objective and analytical approach, despite my obvious disadvantaged position, I am happy to highlight a totally contrarian view – that email, twitter, Facebook and the whole gamut of social networking are actually a good thing for the family. Bill Thompson is one of the regular commentators on the BBC Technology site – one that I monitor on a daily basis. It seems that Bill’s family is pretty similar to mine (in age terms) but he clearly sits on the opposite side of the fence. His “very connected Christmas” clearly worked for them – even though it would sit rather uncomfortably with me. 

So is our addiction to social networking good or bad? I look forward to your comments! If the weight of opinion goes against me I promise to flood the living room with wifi and move out to the potting shed next Christmas!

The fun kicks off on Tuesday morning (PST) in San Francisco with Macworld. No Steve Jobs keynote this year so it will seem a bit flat, but whatever your attitude towards Apple and the Mac, there is no doubt that what gets announced here will have a significant impact on what the rest of the PC world will be doing in the next year. Ultrathin PCs, iPhones, App store – all have had their impact on the industry and, through their growing adoption by individuals (and a few enterprises) they influence what IT managers and CIOs in enterprises need to accommodate. This could well be the last Macworld (at least with the significance that it currently enjoys) so this will be one to watch for what it tells us about the state of industry in general and consumer attitudes in general.

Then we move on to the big shindig – the Consumer Electronics Show (CES 2009) in Las Vegas. Again, it is all to common for enterprise IT people to ignore this as a consumer fest of no significance – but that too would be a mistake – a big one! Amidst the home theatres, outrageous automobiles and all the other consumer options this show is full of pointers to what is going to happen. Display technologies, new drives, networking, streamed media, video, user generated content, home servers and storage and, for those who search diligently, early versions of some very interesting new technology developments.  And these do reach the mainstream market very fast these days. As I reported last year, some gestural computing interfaces demonstrated at CES were available on real machines (available for sale) by July.  And down amongst the gamers I expect to see new advances in user interfaces, haptic feedback, 3D displays and input devices – this is going to be the year of 3D. If you want to stay ahead of the curve, then keeping track of what is happening this week is going to be a smart first step.

Definitely an interesting week to start the new year with. Watch this space!

First, I really must blog more regularly, my efforts over the first few months wre way too sporadic to be valuable.

Secondly, I really must try to cut down on my travelling (my carbon footprint would be a credit to a woolly mammoth!) and persuade people to start using some of the virtual world and remote collaboration tools that are becoming available.

Thirdly, keep pushing the limits on presentation materials.  I always intend to, but as deadlines loom the best of intentions tend to disappear out of the window. Therefore to succeed on this one I will need to keep up-to-date with stuff more (which might be easier if I am not rushing for another flight!)

Fourthly – there is no fourth. Three observations were enough for Isaac Newton, so they are sure as heck good enough for mere mortals!

Happy New Year!